The anti-procrastination measures seem to be working. That could be because it's all still new and shiny, and then they'll be forgotten as soon as I get distracted or bored. I did find that the best use for scheduling fun time isn't as a reward for work, but as a way of stopping the time wasting.
My biggest time-waste is the Internet. I do need to check my e-mail regularly, as I often get opportunities or queries I need to jump on or respond to. There's also a lot of valuable industry information online. And, there's fun stuff. But then there's a point at which it's no longer valuable and not even really fun. It's just something to do other than work, and it goes in a vicious cycle where it starts as useful and fun, then I find myself going back to check if anyone's updated or posted in the last five minutes, plus endless checking of the Amazon rankings, and soon I'm disgusted with myself but I'm still frittering away hours. What seems to be helping with this is scheduling a few slots of Internet time during the day, all of which are immediately followed by something on the schedule with a hard start time or else something I really enjoy. For one thing, there's the psychological effect of making it something I'm obligated to do. Having to spend half an hour online makes it less of a guilty pleasure. I'll find that I get all my business stuff done, have time to do the fun stuff, and then still have time in the slot to do things like answer e-mail. And then it's easy to step away to go do something fun like read, watch a TV show or do something else I want to do. Surprisingly, it's easier for me to transition from something fun to work than it is to stop checking message boards and just get to work.
In other news, it looks like we're closing in on the mid-season finale of Battlestar Galactica (next week, I think), so I really ought to do that planned character archetype analysis. I've come to the conclusion that every character on that show is a Lost Soul, which explains a lot. It also makes sense, given that they've all lost just about everything. A lot of them, though, were that way before the attacks. The issue is what else is layered in there. I'm still working on that, but seeing everyone as a Lost Soul has really altered my perspective on the characters. It seems like the only people who survived the Cylon attacks are the ones who were already pretty messed up, and now they're all traumatized, so they're even more of a mess. We earthlings are in big trouble if that bunch ever makes it to earth. Maybe we need the Doctor to show up with a good "It. Is. Defended." And Lee is looking more and more like the Owen who lives in my head, which is really freaky.
Meanwhile, a friend pointed out this incredibly cool collection of retro-futuristic t-shirts. I'm not sure which one I want most. There's Ask Me About My Death Ray! (scroll to the bottom of the page to see the full design), Certifiable Mad Genius or Ladies' World Domination Society. Or a few others. They are a bit pricey for t-shirts, as I seldom spend that much on nice shirts. Then again, I probably wear t-shirts more often than I wear nice shirts, and these might be nice conversational icebreakers for convention wear. Maybe one of these will be my reward for accomplishing something, writing-wise.
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